1221 Avenue of the Americas, Midtown Manhattan

The 2.5 million-square-foot 1221 Avenue of the Americas soars 670 feet in Rockefeller Center at the western boundary adjoining the Times Square district. The 50-story building was a monument to quality when it first opened in 1972, and it has been maintained meticulously ever since. In the most recent years it has undergone extensive renovation, modernization, and enhancement.

A major capital improvement program is underway, scheduled for completion in 2015, including enhancements to the lobby, elevators, entrances and side-street plazas. View the renovations gallery here.

The building is the largest one in New York to achieve LEED-EB Certification, the designation by the US Green Building Council for existing buildings. (News release)

In 2014 the building was recognized with a Platinum-level Wired Certification from WiredNYC, an organization that ranks properties by their technology infrastructure.

In June 2013, Cushman & Wakefield was named leasing agent to market a 537,000-sq.-ft. contiguous block of space set to become available in the fourth quarter of 2013. (News release)

In October 2013, the global legal services firm Mayer Brown LLP leased 187,500 sq. ft., bringing the 2013 new leasing activity total in the building to 282,648 sq. ft. (News release)

This was followed by a 440,000 square foot lease to the global law firm White & Case, which plans to relocate to the building in 2017. (News release)

The building is one of three adjacent towers Rockefeller Group Development Corporation completed in the early 1970s in a major expansion of Rockefeller Center. Combined with the adjoining 1271 Avenue of the Americas, opened a decade earlier, and with 745 Seventh Avenue, opened in 2001, the newer towers more than doubled Rockefeller Center’s total rentable floor space.

Following a quarter century of full occupancy and successful operation, the McGraw-Hill Building’s extensive renovation was prompted by a fortunate confluence of rising tenant needs, advancing technology, and normal equipment life cycles.

Today 1221 Avenue of the Americas embodies the freshest examples of the ideas that first drew the world’s admiration to Rockefeller Center in the 1930s – numerous artworks and welcoming public plazas; bold, confident design; the most sophisticated operations and amenities; the highest standards for business environments.